Venom #25: I Need to Tell You About Knull

Venom #25 is a mind-trip that keeps you on edge the entire time you are reading the book. Donny Cates continues to write Venom with complexity and sincerity that we’ve never really seen in quite some time with the character. The finale to “Venom Island” needed to have the right amount of suspense, action, and the right amount of “holy sh*t” moments, and Cates once again delivers as only he knows how. Along for the ride are Mark Bagley, Andy Owens, and Frank Martin who add their awesome artistic insight and deliver the perfect amount of creepiness to this book. Combined with Cates’ symbiote pen, this creative team combines their stellar talents for a hell of a book!

The book opens with Eddie going through a history of sorts of him and the symbiote which has an almost interrogation feel to it, and if you remember the end of issue twenty-four then you catch what is going on right away. The only thing we got to still figure out is how powerful Dylan is – well, we might finally have our answer. Flashing back to the island, Dylan infiltrates the mental prison that Cletus has Eddie in. Eddie, not believing what he is seeing until Cletus shows up and confronts the father and son combo. Cletus confronts Dylan and shoves him into the cage where Eddie is. In real life Sleeper begs Dylan to sever the connection to Eddie and Cletus while hanging on to him as he dangles off the side of a building. Dylan simply says “no” while we see his eyes turn to an all to familiar red twirl line. Eddie cheers Dylan on to not be afraid and he can do this. Ripping the Carnage symbiote from his arm starts the domino effect that would free his father and reunite him with the Venom symbiote. At some point and time, Donny must admit that Dylan is the next God of the Symbiotes or at least shares Knull’s powers. There’s a panel where Eddie states “I don’t know what you are, and I don’t care.” So, does Eddie know something that we do not?